Byakugō-ji 白毫寺 | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Shingon Risshū |
Deity | Amida Nyorai (Amitābha) |
Location | |
Location | 392 Byakugōji-chō, Nara, Nara Prefecture |
Country | Japan |
Geographic coordinates | 34°40′15.65″N 135°51′4.35″E / 34.6710139°N 135.8512083°E |
Architecture | |
Founder | Gonsō Gonzō (acc. legend) |
Completed | 715 (acc. legend) |
Byakugō-ji (白毫寺) is a Buddhist temple in Nara, Japan. A number of wooden statues of the Heian and Kamakura periods have been designated Important Cultural Properties and the temple's five-coloured camellias are a Prefectural Natural Monument. [1] [2]
The byakugō or urna is the curl of white hair between the eyebrows that is one of the thirty-two physical characteristics of the Buddha. [3] [4]
The five by five bay Hondō, with tiled hipped roof, dates from the early Edo period (first half of the seventeenth century) and has been designated a Municipal Cultural Property. [5] A tahōtō was still standing in the Meiji period. [6]
Byakugō-ji's seven Important Cultural Properties of Japan are, from the Heian period, an Amida Nyorai, and a bodhisattva traditionally identified as Monju Bosatsu and once enshrined in the temple's tahōtō, and from the Kamakura period, Enma-ō, attendants Shiroku (司録) and Shimyō (司命), Taizan-ō ( 太山王), Jizō Bosatsu, and Kōshō Bosatsu ( 興正菩薩) ( Eison ( 叡尊). [1] The Taizan-ō was carved by Kōen ( 康円) in 1259 and has an inscription documenting repairs in 1498. [7] [8]